General comments

CRCC members expressed support of this revision, submitted comments below, and I'm in general agreement as well; however, I'm concerned with the situation, at this point probably only theoretical, where a subsequent part or issue is issued online, but only for that issue or for a sequence of issues, or perhaps, be a regular or irregular pattern of some issued online and some not. The resource is never really going online permanently. I would not wish a cataloger, following this revision, to create a new description or descriptions each time the media type changed. -- Adolfo (CRS Liaison) 8-23-2012

CRCC members comments:

The proposal requests that an exception be made for serials whose media type is computer and the carrier type changes from a tangible computer carrier to an online resource.

I think they should get a new description. I think if would make for a confusing record to have both online resources and tangible computer resources jumbled together.
My question is what about the reverse? We all know that serials will do everything imaginable so what about when a serial is published as an online resource and then becomes a tangible computer resource? Shouldn't the exception cover the reverse situation? -- C. Genereux

I really like 6JSC/ISSN/1 -- S. Kelly

Also, since this is really considered necessary for work at ISSN centers, so that they can create new descriptions when new ISSNs are requested for serials changing from CD-Rom/tangible to online, I would support this change. Negatively, it will require more new descriptions in these cases for serials. I think also users often do not look for separate descriptions for serials or monographs, certain not in the catalog. They get confused with the often subtly different records we create, especially when serial records commonly have represented two different carriers, print and online, for some time. -- P. Fletcher

I think creating a new description/record when a CD-ROM changes to an online resource seems like it would correspond well to user expectations. -- R. Rendall

This seems eminently sensible to me. Now that I see it, I actually think it makes a lot of sense to split tangible and online into separate media types as ISSN initially proposed (which might be worth pursuing at some point since OLAC has some other issues with some of the less common carrier types). I do think it would be better if the rule were generalized to include the possibility (however unlikely) of a serial moving from online to some sort of tangible distribution model. As far as the issue of a serial changing to online for only a few issues, isn't that a more general issue? Couldn't a serial already change medium for only a few issues (say mixing up print and online or some other format)? I don't know if that is a problem with this proposal so much as the need for a general rule to exclude temporary or erratic variations in media type.
--McGrath (OLAC) 8/28/12

Constituency Responses

1) Broaden the caption at 1.6.2.2 to Changes in Carrier Characteristics of a serial.
2) Treat the revision proposed by ISSN as an instruction rather than an exception.
3) Cover both changes from tangible computer media to online and vice versa.